Máté Petrány

A car platform can cost billions of dollars to develop, which means automakers try to get value out of the existing ones as possible without the consumers realizing their new luxury car is related to a 30-year-old Iranian taxi cab. Here are ten most prostituted car platforms.

10.) Volkswagen PQ34 (1996)

Audi A3 Mk1 (8L)

Audi TT Mk1 (8N)

VW Golf Mk4/VW R32 (1J)

VW Bora/Jetta IV (1J)

Shanghai-VW Lavida

VW New Beetle (1C/1Y/9C)

SEAT León Mk1 (1M)

SEAT Toledo Mk2 (1M)

Škoda Octavia Mk1 (1U)

Volkswagens, Seats, Škodas, Audis, you name it! It's not a big surprise that VW used the same platform for everything from hatchbacks to sports coupes, but this was the point where the first Audi TT met the Chinese-only Volkswagen Lavida.

I was driving my mother-in-law's RX350 last weekend and I couldn't shake the feeling that something about the experience felt weird. Now I know: the Corolla that I had driven earlier was based on the same platform. Looking at pictures, it seems that the area of the vehicle where the windshield meets the hood, right above the firewall, is almost identical on both cars. Given that this area is directly within the driver's line of sight, now it all makes sense.

Funnily enough, when behind the wheel the similarity between the RX350 and the Corolla is more noticeable to me than the similarities between the RX350 and an Avalon (wife has one) or Lexus ES (mom has one).

When Ford took over Volvo, they simply renamed the already developed P2 to D3 and called it a day. At Volvo, everything from the S60 upwards was built on this, but Ford liked it too and based Fords, Mercuries and Lincolns on the upgraded Swedish technology.

6.) Fiat 124 (1966)

The Italians do this better than anybody, and I could go on and on about Autobianchi's front-wheel drive platform and its offsprings, but the 124 is more exciting.

Most of you know that it was European Car of the Year in 1967 and that it spawned the Lada 1200. And you think the original was better. Think again.

The Lada was developed by the Italians for the Russian market. Its engine is much more advanced, the chassis is better and it only handles worse because they had to raise the body for the Soviet roads. Yet it's true that Ladas managed to end up being worse only due to bad build quality. So there's that.

The Fiat 124 didn't stop at the Soviet borders. Oh no. It was also produced in Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Korea and Bulgaria. Italians knew how to sell.

3.) Chrysler K (1981)

1981 Plymouth Reliant

1983 Chrysler LeBaron

1982 Dodge 400

1981 Dodge Aries

1982 Dodge Dart K (Mexico)

1983 Chrysler Executive

1985 Plymouth Caravelle

plus all the damn minivans

Chrysler's K platform was born at the worst period of the automotive industry, so nobody expected much in the first place, yet Chrysler managed to surprise us all with a run that lasted until 1995. Amazing achievement considering the products.

GM's J body. It's far worse than the K, because Chrysler actually made variants of the K…
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It's far worse than the K, because Chrysler actually made variants of the K with different lengths, sheetmetal, and capabilities (G, E, Y, H, etc etc) but the J was so clearly a J, and had so little evolution for so long, it's essentially the poster child for GM's decline.

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